Devdutt Pattanaik: The Peacock Angel of the Yazidis

To the north of Iraq live the people known as Yazidis roughly half a million in number who have been mercilessly hunted down by the rabid hordes of the Islamic State ISIS on grounds that they are Devilworshippers In reality Yazidis have a unique belief system that is a mix of Abrahamism and Zoroastrianism and probably even Hinduism This may be why followers of Hindutva have shown at least on the Internet an unusual and exaggerated empathy for their plight They argue that the mass killings and rape of Yazidis by ISIS is what is in store for the Hindus of India unless they abandon the naiumlve ahimsa route and take up arms against the rising Islamist menaceIllustration Devdutt PattanaikThe Yazidis believe in one God who has placed the world in the care of seven angels the first of whom is the Peacock Angel In Abrahamic mythology when God created Adam the first man he asked the angels to bow to Adam The angel who refused to is called Iblis in Islamic mythology and he became the Devil However in Yezidi mythology the angel who refused to bow before Adam was the Peacock Angel who argued that he was the first angel created from light and so could not be expected to bow before a creature made of dust This answer pleased God who made the Peacock Angel his representative on earth The Peacock Angels tears extinguished the fires of Hell and so humans through his guidance can rise up to Heaven closer to God But he is both good and bad just as the earth is good and bad and this ambiguity has led to Yazidis being seen as Devilworshippers by Muslims communities around themThe Yazidis believe they are a superior race as they are descendants of Adam while rest of humanity are descendants of Adam and Eve God asked Adam and Eve before they copulated to collect their vital fluids in a jar From the jar containing Eves vital fluid were created vermin and insects From the jar containing Adams vital fluid a son was born who married a celestial being of Paradise known as houri and from them the Yazidis are said to have descended This is why Yazidis are strictly forbidden to marry outside their community Those who do are excommunicated This strict endogamy mirrors the Hindu caste systemThe Yazidi veneration of the peacock which is not native to Northern Iran and the snake has led to some people assuming a connection with Tamilians who see the peacock and the snake as the symbol of Murugan the ancient Tamil god worshipped atop mountains The seven angels are seen as the seven siddhas who possess celestial powers known as siddhis leading to the rather forced etymology of Yazidi from ya siddhi Yazidis bury their dead like ancient Tamilians and tombs have a conical roof like the vimana of a Hindu temple In Yazidi rituals lamps play a key role much as in Hindu ritualsThe Yazidis believe in the purity of elements such as earth fire and water and they pray looking in the direction of the sun much like Zoroastrians who thrived in Iran before being pushed out following the rise of Islam The Zoroastrians emerged from the Iranian arm of the eastward moving IndoEuropean tribes while Vedic Hindus emerged from the Indian arm However unlike Zoroastrians Yazidis do believe in a kind of reincarnation that leads to spiritual purification This is explained with the metaphor of changing the garment resonating ideas from the Gita furthering the connection with HinduismThe author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times Reach him at devduttdevduttcom